(Press-News.org) Contact information: Heather Dewar
hdewar@umd.edu
301-405-9267
University of Maryland
U of Maryland undergraduates discover rare eclipsing double asteroid
Fewer than 100 such asteroids have been found in main asteroid belt
COLLEGE PARK, MD – Students in a University of Maryland undergraduate astronomy class have made a rare discovery that wowed professional astronomers: a previously unstudied asteroid is actually a pair of asteroids that orbit and regularly eclipse one another.
Fewer than 100 asteroids of this type have been identified in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, said Melissa Hayes-Gehrke, who teaches the hands-on class for non-astronomy majors in which eight students made the find in the fall semester 2013.
The students' discovery that 3905 Doppler is an eclipsing binary asteroid will be presented in a poster session Jan. 7 at the 223rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in National Harbor, Maryland and published in April in the Minor Planet Bulletin.
"This is a fantastic discovery," said University of Maryland Astronomy Prof. Drake Deming, who was not involved with the class. "A binary asteroid with such an unusual lightcurve is pretty rare. It provides an unprecedented opportunity to learn about the physical properties and orbital evolution of these objects."
"Actually contributing to the scientific community and seeing established scientists getting legitimately excited about our findings is a very good feeling," said Terence Basile, a junior from Beltsville, MD majoring in cell biology.
One of hundreds of thousands of pieces of cosmic debris in our solar system's main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, 3905 Doppler was discovered in 1984, but over the coming decades it attracted scant attention. In September 2013 Hayes-Gehrke's students picked it and two other asteroids from an astronomy journal's list of asteroids worth observing because they were well positioned in the autumn sky and were scientific enigmas.
Student teams studying 3905 Doppler met over four nights in October 2013. Each four-person team observed and photographed the asteroid, using a privately owned telescope in Nerpio, Spain, which they accessed and controlled over the internet. Their main task was to photograph changes in the intensity of each asteroid's reflected light and turn those images into a lightcurve.
A lightcurve is a graph of a celestial object's brightness over time. Variations in brightness are often due to the object's shape, with spherical objects like planets yielding lightcurves that do not vary, and asymmetrical objects like asteroids producing peaks and valleys as the amount of reflected light varies. By measuring the time between maximum light intensities, planetologists can tell how fast an asteroid is rotating. Most asteroids complete a rotation in a few hours to a day.
"When we looked at the images we didn't realize we had anything special, because the brightness difference is not something you can see with your eyes," Hayes-Gehrke said. But when the two teams studying 3905 Doppler used a computer program to chart its lightcurve, they found the asteroid's light occasionally faded to nearly nothing.
"It was incredibly frustrating," said Alec Bartek, a senior physics major from Brookeville, MD. "For some reason our light curve didn't look right."
It was as though the rotating rock had suddenly gone dark – and Hayes-Gehrke suspected that's exactly what was happening. She thought 3905 Doppler was actually two asteroids orbiting one another. When one of the two asteroids blocked the telescope's view of its companion, the result was an asteroid eclipse – and a sharp dip in the light curve.
An amateur astronomer in Italy who was viewing 3905 Doppler at about the same time shared his data with the students. Observations by the Italian, Lorenzo Franco, confirmed the lightcurve came from a binary asteroid.
"Even then I was not fully aware of how special the discovery was," said sophomore economics major Brady Bent of Arbutus, MD. "I thought it just meant we would have to do more work. As we continued to analyze our data, other professors in the Astronomy Department came over to view our work. At this point I understood just how rare our find was."
The two asteroids are probably roughly potato-shaped and pocked with impact craters made by strikes from other space debris, Hayes-Gehrke said. The smaller one is about three-quarters the length of the larger one. They orbit each other end to end. Each orbit takes 51 hours – an unusually long time and one the student researchers can't explain. Now that the students have shown how unusual the asteroid is, it's likely that other astronomers will study it.
"Picking the asteroid was luck," Hayes-Gehrke said. So was the fact that the students' camera happened to record an eclipse. But then the students used the same problem-solving techniques a professional astronomer would use to explain an unexpected finding.
"That's the whole point of the class," Hayes-Gehrke said. "I'm hoping they'll keep in mind, when they read about scientific results, that it's not a cut-and-dried process, but the scientist probably had to go through some kind of struggle to get results."
INFORMATION:
-UMDCP/CMNS-
Media contact:
Heather Dewar, 301-405-9267, hdewar@umd.edu
College of Computer, Mathematical and Natural Sciences
"Lightcurve analysis for asteroids 3905 Doppler, 983 Gunila and 5110 Belgirate" by Melissa Hayes-Gehrke, George Levantis, Alec Bartek, Emily Greenberg, Ken Koester, Seong Min Lee, Zach Wasli and Chris Wells-Weitzner will be presented between 9 am and 6:30 pm Jan. 7 at the American Astronomical Society's biannual meeting, the Gaylord National Resort and Conference Center, National Harbor, MD.
Supplemental materials available include a high-resolution artist's rendering of 3905 Doppler on the verge of an eclipse; a copy of the poster presentation; and photos of the undergraduates who made the discovery.
U of Maryland undergraduates discover rare eclipsing double asteroid
Fewer than 100 such asteroids have been found in main asteroid belt
2014-01-07
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Ancient sharks reared young in prehistoric river-delta nursery
2014-01-07
Ancient sharks reared young in prehistoric river-delta nursery
ANN ARBOR—Like salmon in reverse, long-snouted Bandringa sharks migrated downstream from freshwater swamps to a tropical coastline to spawn 310 million years ago, leaving behind fossil evidence of one of ...
How you practice matters for learning a skill quickly
2014-01-07
How you practice matters for learning a skill quickly
Practice alone doesn't make perfect, but learning can be optimized if you practice in the right way, according to new research based on online gaming data from more than 850,000 people.
The ...
Ants shape their thoraces to match the tasks they perform
2014-01-07
Ants shape their thoraces to match the tasks they perform
This news release is available in Portuguese.
It was now discovered that the specialization of queen and worker ants goes beyond the presence or absence of wings. In a study published ...
Racism may accelerate aging in African-American men
2014-01-07
Racism may accelerate aging in African-American men
UMD-led study is first to link racism-related factors and cellular age
A new study reveals that racism may impact aging at the cellular level. Researchers found signs of accelerated aging in African American men, ages reporting ...
NYSCF scientists make living brain cells from Alzheimer's patients biobanked brain tissue
2014-01-07
NYSCF scientists make living brain cells from Alzheimer's patients biobanked brain tissue
New study shows ability to make living human cells from biobanked brain tissue
NEW YORK, NY (January 7, 2014) – Scientists at The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research ...
Some brain regions retain enhanced ability to make new connections
2014-01-07
Some brain regions retain enhanced ability to make new connections
In adults, some brain regions retain a "childlike" ability to establish new connections, potentially contributing to our ability to learn new skills and form new memories as we age, ...
Several forms of vitamin E protect against memory disorders
2014-01-07
Several forms of vitamin E protect against memory disorders
Elderly people with high serum vitamin E levels are less likely to suffer from memory disorders than their peers with lower levels, according to a study published recently in Experimental ...
Patterns of social interaction remain consistent over time
2014-01-07
Patterns of social interaction remain consistent over time
The research was conducted by researchers form Aalto University and University of Oxford, and was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) recently.
"We ...
The power of packaging in consumer choices
2014-01-07
The power of packaging in consumer choices
Researchers from the University of Miami and California Institute of Technology show how the brain considers both visual cues and taste preferences when making everyday food choices
CORAL GABLES, FL (January 6, 2014) — ...
By the numbers: A simple 10 step approach to reducing the harms of alcohol
2014-01-07
By the numbers: A simple 10 step approach to reducing the harms of alcohol
London, LA (07 January 2013). Much the same way individuals are encouraged to know their blood pressure and cholesterol numbers to maintain a healthy lifestyle, a new editorial in the Journal ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
Less intensive works best for agricultural soil
Arctic rivers project receives “national champion” designation from frontiers foundation
Computational biology paves the way for new ALS tests
Study offers new hope for babies born with opioid withdrawal syndrome
UT, Volkswagen Group of America celebrate research partnership
New Medicare program could dramatically improve affordability for cancer drugs – if patients enroll
Are ‘zombie’ skin cells harmful or helpful? The answer may be in their shapes
University of Cincinnati Cancer Center presents research at AACR 2025
Head and neck, breast, lung and survivorship studies headline Dana-Farber research at AACR Annual Meeting 2025
AACR: Researchers share promising results from MD Anderson clinical trials
New research explains why our waistlines expand in middle age
Advancements in muon detection: Taishan Antineutrino Observatory's innovative top veto tracker
Chips off the old block
Microvascular decompression combined with nerve combing for atypical trigeminal neuralgia
Cutting the complexity from digital carpentry
Lung immune cell type “quietly” controls inflammation in COVID-19
Fiscal impact of expanded Medicare coverage for GLP-1 receptor agonists to treat obesity
State and sociodemographic trends in US cigarette smoking with future projections
Young adults drive historic decline in smoking
NFCR congratulates Dr. Robert C. Bast, Jr. on receiving the AACR-Daniel D. Von Hoff Award for Outstanding Contributions to Education and Training in Cancer Research
Chimpanzee stem cells offer new insights into early embryonic development
This injected protein-like polymer helps tissues heal after a heart attack
FlexTech inaugural issue launches, pioneering interdisciplinary innovation in flexible technology
In Down syndrome mice, 40Hz light and sound improve cognition, neurogenesis, connectivity
Methyl eugenol: potential to inhibit oxidative stress, address related diseases, and its toxicological effects
A vascularized multilayer chip reveals shear stress-induced angiogenesis in diverse fluid conditions
AI helps unravel a cause of Alzheimer's disease and identify a therapeutic candidate
Coalition of Autism Scientists critiques US Department of Health and Human Services Autism Research Initiative
Structure dictates effectiveness, safety in nanomedicine
Mission accomplished for the “T2T” Hong Kong Bauhinia Genome Project
[Press-News.org] U of Maryland undergraduates discover rare eclipsing double asteroidFewer than 100 such asteroids have been found in main asteroid belt